A finite impulse response (FIR) 6-tap pre-emphasis (PEP) filter with programmable coefficients was employed to counteract intersymbol interface (ISI) in high speed backplane data communication or optical communication. The proposed circuit can operate at the data rates up to 10 Gb/s. This circuit is designed in 90 nm CMOS technology and operates at 1.0 V. Simulation results show that the circuit improves signal eye diagram opening by at least 120 mV at receiver end for the B mode channel from IEEE P802.3 ap Task Force Channel Model Material. The total power consumption is 41.2 mW for the whole pre-emphasis, including the retiming circuit and the pre-drive buffers.